Monday, October 28, 2013

Kata Fish Tab 3 Review: Giant Koi

Kata Fish Tab 3

INTRODUCTION:

The Kata Digital was in the local market for more than two years, they are an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) based in Hong Kong selling smartphones and tablets. Their latest tablet is named Fish Tab 3 which was released last quarter.This Kata tablet utilizes a less popular Rockchip chipset but it does not mean it is not capable. In fact, it is quite powerful, it uses RK3188 which has a quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz each, Mali-400 MP4 GPU coupled with 2GB of RAM.

The retail package below is for the discounted price (30% off), it consists of the unit, charger/USB cable combo and 2 manuals. If you want a screen protector and a case you need to purchase them separately or buy the Fish Tab 3 on its regular price.

Retail Package

The front of the Tab 3 is mainly covered by its 7.9-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen LCD. The bezels are noticeably thin but do not expect edge to edge display. There is also a hardware control (home button) at the bottom which deems to be a little use since there is an on-screen home button.

One important use of the hardware home button is you can also use it to wake up the tablet (beside the power key).

Front

The 3.5mm audio jack and the power key can be found opposite to one another at the top of the device. In between them is a plastic part which is purposely made to avoid wireless signal losses.

3.5mm audio jack and power key at the top

The micro USB port is comfortably located in the center at the bottom of the tablet. The neatly drilled aluminum on both ends are the loudspeaker grills (there are 36 holes if want to know).

Micro USB port and loudspeaker grills

The left side houses the micro SD card underneath a plastic lid while the right side has the volume rocker.

Micro SD port at the left

Volume rocker at the right

The
5MP main camera (without flash) is located in the upper left portion of the back beside the plastic part. The fish logo is placed in the center while the other markings are in the bottom part.

Back

The back is made of almost all aluminum which gives the tablet its premium feel. At first glance I can't help but notice that its design is somewhat similar to the Apple iPad Mini. Their screen sizes and resolutions are the same too.

The pictures below show how the Kata Fish Tab 3 looks compared to the Apple iPad Mini.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Left

Right

The Fish Tab has more millimeters in all dimensions than that of the Apple tablet (201.7x136.3x8.4 versus 200x134.7x7.2) so do not expect that the case designed for the latter will fit with the former.

DISPLAY:

The display is superb, the viewing angles are wide thanks to its IPS touchscreen (5-point multi-touch) display made by LG.

5-point multi-touch

Viewing Angle, Portray

Viewing Angle, Landscape

INTERFACE:

Upon the first use, there will be a welcome page which is actually a start-up page, you can do it at that instant or skip it if you want.

Startup

The lockscreen is the typical Jelly Bean, the padlock icon is inside the circle wherein you can drag it to any location to unlock the device.

Lockscreen

The homescreen has 7 shortcuts by default, the center always opens the app drawer while the remaining six can be altered the way you want. You can actually place a total of 8 shortcuts, 4 on each side. There is also a reserved space for the capacitive keys below your favorites tray.

Homescreen

The app drawer has a 5x6 layout while the widget has 3 columns by 3 rows. The Play Store button is always visible in the upper right hand corner.

Apps

Widgets

The Fish Tab 3 uses the stock Android Jelly Bean with minimum tweaks and one of them is the notification panel. Instead of having one panel, it was broken down into two, the left side is the actual notification area while the right side is the system settings.

It is a bit annoying though that when you choose the WiFi and Bluetooth toggles, instead of being activated it will bring you to the settings page and that is the only time you can turn it on/off.

Notification Panel and System Toggle

BENCHMARKS:

The RK3188 may not be the mainstream chipset but it has its own computing powers.

It scored 5477 in Quadrant which is also quite high leaving the HTC One X far behind. The refresh rate is also good at 55.5Hz.

Quadrant, 5477

The NenaMark scores are great as well, topping off at 55.6fps.

NenaMark2, 55.6 fps

As expected, it also got high results in the Vellamo HMTL and Metal tests.

Vellamo, HTML 1732 & Metal 536

PHONEBOOK:

The Phonebook is dependent with your online accounts, there is no option to save the group or contact to your device.

Phonebook

EMAIL:

The generic Email app supports multiple account, navigating between messages can be done by the newer or older buttons at the bottom. Sadly it only allows you to attach images, nothing more (unlike the other device we reviewed wherein you can attach anything).

Email

The Gmail account is also present and its functionality is similar to the stock email app. Navigation is done by swiping left or right

Gmail

MULTIMEDIA:

Gallery:

The gallery is where your photos and videos are located, they can be arranged by Albums, Locations, Times, People or Tags. The camera shortcut is available at the upper right corner and beside it is the menu button.

Gallery

Anything under the gallery can be shared locally via Bluetooth, online accounts or via the proprietary FishTune software.

Gallery Options

Like any other Jelly Bean device, it also has the photo editor app which can be accessed when you select the three overlapping circles under a certain picture in the gallery.

Photo Editor

Video Player:

The Video, is the default player for your movies or clips, it will list all playable files on your device. It has great codec support and can play almost any file and supports subtitles too.

Video Interface

If you want to multitask while watching your favorite videos you will be delighted because the Video can do that. To end the floating video, just press and hold it and an X inside a circle will appear.

Floating Video

All in all there are three players installed, the stock Android Video Player, Video and MX Player. You can choose which one you like when you select a compatible file under the Explorer (file manager).

Video Players, MX Player (middle) & Stock (bottom)

Music Player:

Music Player is also present, it will list all supported files by Artist, Albums or Songs. Those songs with album art will be displayed once played. When you minimize it while a song is running, you can access it again thru the notification panel.

Music Interface

Camera/Video:

The
camera and video has the same interface but you can only access them one by one. To change between photo, panorama or video select the lower left icon. To use the front camera or to access the settings (with limited options) press the lower right icon (hollow circle).

You can differentiate the camera interface to video interface with the color of the shutter key, blue for the former and red for the latter.

Camera Interface

Video Interface

The main camera has 5MP sensor while the front facing has 2MP. Both can only shoot VGA videos which seem to be too low for today's standard.

Photo and Video Details

Sample Pictures

Sample Video

VGA

Browsing:

The Tab 3 has both stock Android browser and the Google Chrome. Visiting your favorite websites is an easy task, the page loads quickly even with those full of graphics.

Browsing between tabs is also no problem since the device has 2GB of RAM. You can also view the webpage's desktop version without straining your eyes.

Browser

Chrome

Gaming:

The casual games like Pou, Candy Crush Saga, Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers are highly playable and no match to the processing power of the Fish Tab 3.

Pou

Candy Crush Saga

Temple Run 2

Subway Surfers

High graphics games and RAM hungry games like Dead Trigger, Plants versus Zombies 2 and Dungeon Hunter 4 are not even worthy opponent for the mighty internals of the tablet. You can play all of them smoothly and without any hiccups or issues.

Dead Trigger

Plant versus Zombies 2

Dungeon Hunter 4

What bothers me is that some apps like Instagram and games like Dead Trigger 2 are not compatible with this tablet. I do not know yet if it is a software bug or apps themselves does not really support the Rockchip chipset.

Dead Trigger 2

CONNECTIVITY:

The Tab 3 is a WiFi only tablet (No 3G version), it supports WiFi Direct and WiFi Display (Display Mirroring). The WiDi needs a compatible display or adapter to work.

WiFi

WiFi Display

The Micro USB port acts as a charging port and also supports OTG functions (external USB and wireless mouse are working).

External USB Storage

The Bluetooth and 3.5mm audio jack complete the lists of connectivity.

SENSORS:

The Kata tablet has a bunch of sensors listed when you check via CPU-Z, benchmarks or Android Sensor Box but only two of them works fine (the auto rotation and light). I do not know it those sensors are real or my unit is defective.

Sensors

PRODUCTIVITY:

The Fish Tab is also great to have your work done, it has the necessary applications installed like Calendar, Clock, Calculator, Sound Recorder, File Explorer, Adobe Reader and KingSoft Office which lets you edit or create documents.

Calendar

Clock

Calculator

Sound Recorder

Explorer

Adobe

King Soft Office

GPS:

Under the Settings > Locations Access it shows that the device has GPS, however after waiting for about an hour it still does not work. Again, I do not know if my unit is defective or it is a software bug or it does not have GPS at all.

GPS

BATTERY:

I played Dungeon and Hunter 4 for more than 48 minutes and the battery capacity dropped from 100% to 83%. The battery stat has software bug too, as you can see below the Android System used 91% of the battery juice even if it was only up for about 7 minutes while the game I played used only 2% even though it was up for a longer period of time.

Battery Stats

OTHERS:

The YouTube app is installed for watching trending videos on the internet.

YouTube

Google talk is still pre-installed instead of the Google Hangouts, though you can easily update the Talk and it we be replaced by the Hangouts.

Talk - Hang Out

The Google apps related to your location such as Navigation, Map and Local are all present, however it won't be useful without a working GPS.

Google Navigation, Map, Local

The Search app can look through your contacts, music, web etc.

Search

The Movie Studio can be used to edit or create video clips.

Movie Studio

The ApkInstaller is an app which detects the .apk files on your device and consolidate them in one place so that you can "sideload" them at ease.

APK Installer

The Downloads as the name suggest is the place where you can see all the downloads you made on your tablet.

Downloads

The HomeDia is an app which turns your tablet into a server wherein you can share your musics, photos, and videos on your device.

HomeDia

The Fish Tune is the opposite of the HomeDia, in this app you can stream music, photos and videos from your PC straight to the Fish Tab 3.

Fish Tune

The Fish Market is the Fish Tab version of the Play Store.

Fish Market

CONCLUSION:GIANT KOI

The Kata tablet is great for watching your favorite movies or video clips, it supports a wide variety of video codecs and its IPS screen lets you watch at almost any angle. The device is also suitable for business too, it is loaded with useful applications you can use to finish your job on the go.
The combination of quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM is proven to be effective at multitasking even for hard-core gaming.

Fish Tab 3 is the most powerful tablet yet from Kata Digital and with its price slashed to 30% off (now only Php7,699) you might consider it when you are looking for an Android slate.

Same goes with me and very very disappointed that this device cannot transfer installed applications and games to inserted SD card even after updating the OS... You will also notice from this review that they never mentioned about this shortcomings, I wonder why... If only i knew or told me so that this device can only install applications and games up to 6.5+Gb, I wouldn't have bought it... The manufacturer claims that it can be expanded, but it cannot...What a HOAX...

Don't bother buying this unit. It is made of plastic and easily get dent. I send my unit for the dead pixel problem. After 2 weeks, unit was not in good condition already and I noticed that it has a dent due to the repairs. Now I am still waiting for them to return the unit. After sales SUCKS!!!! They will just tell you to wait for them to call you!!!! OWTEL SUCKS!!!!

correct.. I had an experience with them wherein my son had accidentally drop the tablet and they told me that repair would not be for more than 21 days.. and yet the I have receive the repaired unit after 1 - 1/2 months... my goodness.. the only problem of the tablet was the power button.. it sucks.. you could not contact them.. customer service representative are arrogant... also the people are providing different information on purchase and the same goes for repair information...

We bought our Kata FishTab 3 a year ago and the battery just conked out. This is the second time I brought it for repair. In fact, 1 month was spent having it repaired because of some problem encountered when its OS was automatically updated. So, it was only a bit over 10 months that it was actually in good working condition. Somebody from the repair service called and told me that I need to shell out P1,900.00 (P1,500.00 for the battery and P400 for the service charge) just to replace the battery. And I need to go back first to StarMall and pay the P1,900 before they’ll open the unit and replace the battery. Then, I have to wait again for them to deliver the tablet back to the StarMall outlet. What a RIP OFF! Never ever buy KATA products or products sold by OWTEL!!!